Japanese Whalers Disrupted by Activists

Dec. 29, 2008 -- Militant environmental campaigners said Monday they had prevented Japanese whalers from harpooning any of the giant sea mammals for nine days by engaging them in a 1,000-nautical-mile high seas pursuit.

Paul Watson, captain of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel "Steve Irwin", said his crew chased the Japanese fleet through ice, rough seas and fog off Antarctica.

"I don't understand where they are running to, they are still going east. We've chased them over 1,000 (nautical) miles now," Watson said.

"And they are still going east and we're still following and...they haven't killed any whales in nine days."

Watson would not say how close his vessel was to the Japanese boats, but activists on board the Steve Irwin were Friday able to pelt stink bombs at the Kaiko Maru.

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Around 10 bottles of rotten butter and 15 of a mixture of methyl cellulose and indelible dye were tossed at the ship during an encounter in which the two vessels struck each other without causing serious damage.

A Japanese government-backed whaling body claimed that the activists' ship rammed into the left side of the Japanese vessel, damaging a bulwark, while the Sea Shepherd accused the whaling boat of steering into it.

Watson insisted that his group, which is in its fifth year of attempting to harass Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean, was behaving legally.

"Our critics should just shut up because we've been doing this for five years, we haven't been charged with anything, we've not broken any laws, we've not injured anybody," he said of the 24-hour pursuit.

"We are opposing people who are targeting endangered whales in an established whale sanctuary, in violation of a global moratorium on whaling."

Japan kills hundreds of whales a year in the name of scientific research, getting round an international moratorium on commercial whaling, although much of the meat still ends up on dinner tables.

Whale meat is a delicacy in Japan and Tokyo accuses critics of insensitivity to its whaling culture.

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Sea Shepherd Conservation Society